


Mitch and Scorpion

by Kogata (esorydoolb)



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Eventual Romance, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Spoilers for Badlands, aldecaldos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-19 06:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29746065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esorydoolb/pseuds/Kogata
Summary: V has come to terms with his mercenary life in Night City. Yet when he meets up with some members of the Bright family, he feels connected to them - a tentative relationship is formed.A piece of writing mainly to appreciate two of the minor characters of the game, Scorpion and Mitch. A re-interpretation of V's encounter with them, plus a character study of my nomad V who is based on an original character.
Relationships: Mitch Anderson/V (Cyberpunk 2077)
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> V's nomad background is very important to this characterization of V. Because he is based on an original character, it could be worth mentioning that he is the type who doesn't easily form relationships that aren't purely of a sexual nature. He prefers to work alone and only opens up to a few people who are close to him.  
> This fic is mostly self-indulgent writing about my favorite characters. I hope you can enjoy it - and feedback is much appreciated!

V glanced at the two nomads, taking in their scan results through his Kiroshi optics. Even without them he could recognize the hardware in an instant. Military-issued combat implants, and not too shabby ones either. He nodded slowly in approval, all the while passively listening to Panam trying to win their support for this job of theirs. By now he was used to the dangerously short fuse on that woman, her voice growing uncomfortably loud and agitated as Scorpion and Mitch, the typical obedient nomads, refused to yield to her goading.

V contemplated physically stepping in to calm his partner down, but to his surprise, she managed to do so on her own, letting out a deep breath to relieve the tension from her shoulders. It wasn't unlike watching a bomb finally being defused.

“Fine,” she conceded. “But I‘ll take some equipment with me. Need to borrow your rifle, Mitch. V, looks like we‘re on our own.“

He followed her with tightly closed lips into the camp, realizing that if Panam had no reason to stay angry at the two men for even that long, then she had to value them more than he gave them credit for. Maybe he had misjudged the nomads and their relationship with Panam. In any case, he was prepared for this to be a two-person job, so he didn‘t bother to complain. In his mind, two people were less likely to be detected in the first place.

It seemed that even though she had been absent for a while, the camp still treated Panam like part of the family, happy to see her. He couldn’t say the same about his own if he ever decided to come back for an unannounced visit, that was for sure.

“Help me with this, will ya?” They had stopped in front of a one-man tent filled with equipment, some tools and other personal items. A sturdy and heavy-looking box was the object in question. Panam herself picked up some more cables and a long big-caliber rifle from the shelf. “Carry that over to the car.” Calling out orders seemed to come natural to the woman. No wonder she had a problem with authority.

“Yes, ma‘am,” he answered without missing a beat, lifting the case with his cybernetically enhanced arms and feeling the reliable synthetic muscles spring into action. On the way back to their transport, he noticed Scorpion and Mitch hanging out in front of an Aldecaldos truck on the outer edge of the camp, in comfortable silence. Inseparable, the duo, it looked like.

His eyes lingered for a few seconds. Too bad, he thought to himself. He wouldn‘t have minded getting to know the younger looking guy, who called himself Scorpion, a little bit better. There was something about him that had caught his interest, that reminded him of an old friend from the past. The rough edge to his voice, probably. Plus, he looked like he knew his stuff, had experience with his own share of high-risk jobs. Reliable. That confidence and directness were traits he recognized from himself. V didn’t much care about the rest of the Aldecaldos, mainly because he had no connection to them other than their shared nomad background, and that life he had left behind a long time ago.

Maybe he could just exchange a few words before they departed, with the excuse of wanting to inquire about the temperamental young woman he had the fortune to be partnered up with. Could learn something useful about her, that would make him feel less on edge about running this show with someone he had barely shaken hands with before.

He took his chance as Panam was still occupied with some last preparations and decided to casually stroll over, hands tucked into the pockets of his loose-fitting jeans. The two men looked up as soon as they saw him coming in their direction, offering a friendly smile and a nod, respectively.

“Listen, man, sorry that we cannot back you up on this one.“ Apparently he felt sincerely bad about refusing to help them with their plan, judging by how quick Mitch was to apologize to him as if it was his fault for having to follow orders.

V immediately shook his head. “Nah, I understand. Rode with a clan myself, for a while.“ Maybe also the reason that he had left, he thought to himself. Less disagreements. Besides, it was always better to just rely on your own set of capable hands. No risk of betrayal, no need to clean up after someone else if they failed.

“Yeah? With whom?“ Mitch asked with genuine interest in his voice.

“Bakkers,“ he replied curtly.

He felt their calculating eyes on him, a sensation like the prickling of his skin on a chilly night out in the badlands. It lasted only for a short moment before Mitch’s expression turned back into an unperturbed smile, not pressing him to give up more details. The fact that he so easily accepted his unspoken past made him feel a little more at ease. V always did his best to repress those memories as quickly as they had turned up.

“So, it turns out you and Panam have something in common,“ Scorpion piped up first of the two, causing V to shift his attention towards the low timbre of his voice. Their eyes finally met each other under Scorpion‘s hood and V‘s own kabuto. “Feel like I can trust you to keep an eye on our Panam. Not like she needs it, though. She learned from the best.“

V chuckled quietly. “Aaa-nd. Let me guess, that would be you?“

Scorpion’s scarred face lit up as he allowed himself to laugh somewhat proudly. The unexpected sound caused a pleasant warmth to bloom inside V’s chest. “A clever one, aren’t you. Yeah, that’s right. So, you really couldn’t ask for a better partner for this mission of yours.“ From the deadpan delivery he could believe that in spite of his disinclination towards modesty, Scorpion was not the type to brag without good reason.

“That’s great to hear. And don‘t worry, I‘m more than just a clever brain and pretty blue eyes. We’ll be just fine and back in a minute.“ He threw in a wink for good measure, keeping his tone light to signal that he was being flirtatious and revelling in Scorpion’s responding smile. This was going better than he had expected.

Too bad though that he wasn’t the only one listening to their little exchange, as he heard the unmistakable sound of someone else clearing his throat. “Aa-lrighty here, I‘m out of this conversation. The generators aren’t gonna repair themselves by me just standing here and talking. And don‘t you also have a job to get to, V?“ Mitch purposefully raised his voice by a notch to emphasize the sole syllable of his name, cutting off any chance of another remark from Scorpion.

The mercenary gracefully accepted the cue to take his leave, slowly retreating backwards to the car that was waiting for him. “Relax, I’m already out of your hair.“ With a smirk on his face, and since it was really hard to resist it, he gave Scorpion a last not so subtle once-over before turning around. “See ya, boys.” He said it like it meant a promise.


	2. Chapter 2

Some time later,  
After the Kang Tao incident

It seemed that with his new mercenary life in Night City, he had also become a collector of keepsakes of the dead. First it was just weapons, rare pieces of jewelry and all odds and ends that he could sell for a quick grab of money and no one would ask further questions about. Now it was motorbikes, apparently. And the guilt of keeping them that he had a hard time getting rid of.

Vehemently, V shook the last image of his best friend out of his head, determined on fixing his gaze back on the tracks in front of him as he had to focus on navigating the bumpy roads so characteristic of the badlands. The sun hung low on the horizon, casting its fading light onto the wild cacti scattered around the country. His hands grabbed the handlebars of the motorcycle harder, the one that had belonged to the late Scorpion, and its engine gave a roaring cry as the bike accelerated. Why it had ended up in his possession, he had no idea. Maybe people thought him invincible, that his will to survive was enough to keep him afloat in this godforsaken shipwreck that was his life. Of course, they never thought about a potential deadly biochip that was jacked deeply into his brain.

Who would come to collect his most prized possessions from him after he had died, he wondered, and scoffed just a second later for letting himself hope. Scavengers, that’s who. Simple answer to that question, V.

“I see you took her out for a spin. That’s good, he would have liked that.” The sound of Mitch’s voice carrying over to him pulled him out of a film, back to the here and now. Hearing it had an effect like recognizing an old song on the radio that he didn’t know he had missed listening to.

Without realizing it, V had reached the outer layout of the Aldecaldos camp. Mitch was sitting there on a car-sized brown rock not far away from him and all by himself. After parking his bike in the tall grass behind the other nomad vehicles, V walked over to the older man, who seemed to be watching him with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“What are you doing over here?” he asked in lieu of a greeting, leaning against the heavy piece of boulder.

“I’m glad you came, V. I need you for a little favor.” 

“Sure, but that doesn’t answer my question.” V turned his head to inspect the other. To his surprise, he found himself staring at a slightly irritated Mitch, a sight he wasn’t used to seeing at all. In his defense, this here was Mitch … Mitch after the incident with Kang Tao.

“What do you think I’m doing out here? I was reminiscing about an old friend. Which is why I need your help, actually.”

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, V impatiently waited for him to continue. “And?”

“Come on, it’s better to show you. Let’s take the cars for a little ride.” Before V had the chance to come up with another confused remark, Mitch had already hopped off the large rock and was making his way towards the nomad vehicles, clearly not intent on wasting any second. Knowing that he wasn’t suddenly going to change his mind and offer him more details, V decided to keep his mouth shut this time.

There were two cars parked a little further offside the camp, clearly put there to be ready to be used. Like true nomad cars, they were heavily modified and custom painted, each with a completely individual touch.

“Nice rides,” V commented honestly, appreciating the handiwork. “Beautiful.”

“Yeah, you know it. This one belonged to Scorpion, the other one is mine. You can drive, right?”

“Are you joking?”

“You know what I mean. It’s a special set of wheels, I’m just being protective. If that’s a yes, get into my car and then follow me.”

“Okay then.”

The strongly opinionated second voice of a rockstar slash terrorist inside his head, was displeased about this turn of events. Namely the fact that he blindly followed a set of directions leading them to nowhere. It didn’t mince matters when expressing its disapproval but showered him with line after sarcastic line about wasted time and exploited trust on the otherwise silent car ride. But nitpicking Johnny Silverhand complained even if he so much as breathed in the same air as a corpo, in a city that was basically chock-full of them. In this respect, V was plenty used to it already and chose to ignore his snide remarks to the best of his ability.

These things set aside, V saw no problem in doing a favor for a friend, which he honestly considered Mitch to be, after what they had been through. There were not many deserving of his trust, so he kept a rather short list of friends. If this was about paying respect to a companion of Mitch, then there was no question about the importance of the task.

Which is why he kept silent, when they finally reached the destroyed bridge at the great canyon. He kept silent, when Mitch ordered him to grab a canister of gasoline while carrying the dead body of his friend out of the trunk and onto the driver’s seat. And when given the instruction to light the fuel tank on fire using a burning rag, he simply shouted his signal to Mitch, who stood readily behind him, remotely starting up the car and driving it over the edge of the ramp and into the depths of the canyon. They watched as it tumbled down into the sheer bottomless chasm, the explosion ringing out in a big bang like the final chord of a rock-epic.

“Out with a bang, just like he wanted,” Mitch said solemnly. He took a deep breath in the stark silence that followed. His voice was quiet and dry, almost unemotional when he spoke again. “I’m gonna miss you, Scorpion.”

The fact that it was V’s second funeral in the span of hardly a week didn’t make it any less uncomfortable to witness. Sure, it felt less personal this time, much less even, but once the realness of it all had caught up to him, an unsettling emptiness spread in the region of his chest. As soon as Mitch decided to change the setting and steered them towards his own car, where he had apparently stored some cold beer in the trunk, he involuntarily stuck close to the other man.

“Why the name, ‘Scorpion’?” V asked to break the tension.

Mitch’s upper body was bent over the luggage compartment of his car, rummaging around for an oddly long time while V was left staring at his back. “Huh, funny, I never asked him that myself.” Finally, he seemed to have found what he was looking for and reemerged with two cans of decent beer in his hands. V accepted his with a mumbled thanks as Mitch began walking in front of him again. “Who knows, maybe he had a big stinger.” They both chuckled mildly at the attempt of a joke.

At the low concrete wall residual of the collapsed bridge, Mitch came to a halt and cracked open his can of beer. Behind them, the orange-brown scenery of the desert rested peacefully under the setting sun. 

“To Scorpion,” he said, looking V in the eyes, before taking a long swig.

“Yeah. To Scorpion.” While V had his head tipped back and was savoring his beer, Mitch brought out something that he had been hiding behind his back, unnoticed by the other man.

“Look, V, there’s something I want you to have.” Catching his attention with this sentence, Mitch held out his hand, the one that was still his own human flesh.

“A knife?” It was phrased more like a statement than a question, yet V’s confusion was mirrored in his voice.

“Used to belong to Scorpion. Maybe it was his lucky charm or something, he always carried it around for some reason. Except that one day, when, you know … I finally found it lying in his car.” He turned the weapon over in his fist, observing the way the light reflected across the sharp blade. Eyes softening, undoubtedly thinking about images from the past, he pushed his hand towards V. “I think you should take it. You might still find some use in it.”

“Are you sure? It’s a memento of your friend, Mitch …,” V quickly retorted, even though he knew where this was going. Better let him carry it around and obtain some use from it, rather than keeping it stored away as not to arouse painful memories. He had seen the same expression on Mama Welles’ face before when passing on Jackie’s keys to him. In a way, he could understand the sentiment.

However, there still remained one question in V’s mind.

“Why me, Mitch?” he asked earnestly, accepting the gift from his open palm but not yet pulling his hand away. He saw Mitch hesitate for a short moment, as if he himself maybe didn’t know the answer to that. Eventually, the older man let his arm fall down to rest by his side again and shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

“I guess, it’s because it’s thanks to you that I am still here to give him a proper funeral. I wanted to thank you for saving me back then. And thank you for today, too.” Falling back into silence to ponder over his next words, Mitch cast his gaze downwards. Then, more quietly, he added, “And because I know you saw something special in Scorpion, from the first moment you two met. I could feel that.”

Astounded by this last part, V was reminded of their first and only conversation back at the camp. He was surprised that Mitch seemed to remember it so well. “Really, that? I-I was just-”

“You may come off as the type of guy who likes to charm his way into everyone’s pants, but that’s not actually true. You’re alright, V. You helped us out when you didn’t really have to. To me, that makes you a good guy.”

The stunned mercenary could do nothing else but return the hint of an affectionate smile that he believed to perceive on Mitch’s lips. The words replayed in his head, the meaning of them slowly seeping through to him. Wondering whether they were true. It sounded so easy to accept them as the truth - yet he just couldn’t support the picture Mitch seemed to have built of him.

His personal goals were simple and summed up into three words: Survival and self-indulgence. What he did was not purely out of the good of his heart. Rather, the true motivation behind his actions was the thought that the people he helped could in turn become useful to him. Meaning, he wouldn’t have risked his life for just anyone. 

V’s smile wavered for the tiniest moment, but he refused to ruin the mood between them and managed to keep up a confident facade. Raising his arm with the can of beer still between his fingers, he comradely bumped the back of his hand against Mitch’s chest.

“Of course I did. Couldn’t just let you die there,” he replied with a grin. “Glad you’re still with us.”

“You and me both. Look, V, I’ve kept you long enough. Go ahead and take my car back to the camp. I need a little time for myself out here, to think … And I’ll find my way back later myself. See you around, okay? And take care.” Mitch straightened himself up, motioning with his hand towards an old camping chair at the edge of the road, on which he was looking to make himself more comfortable.

For V, it was time to return back to the city, kick the desert sand from his boots and prepare himself for another day of adrenaline-filled jobs. He nodded, willing to leave the other man some space. “Alright, take care.” With that, he was about to turn around and walk away, when he suddenly remembered something and stopped himself mid-movement. “Uh, so, call me? Or, text me, if you want to talk? You know, after you’ve grown bored of sulking all by your lonesome.”

“Ha! I’ll think about it, thanks.”

V smiled to himself, tightening his grip on Scorpion’s knife in his hand as he at last trudged off to the car. He believed that he could still sense traces of the other’s body heat on the knife’s handle. There was certainly another connection formed between them. Left behind by one’s best friend, determined to keep their memories alive … They shared a pain that was hard to process.

At least, it made him remember that he was not completely on his own. That the people who had gifted him the keepsakes of their loved ones felt the same way - lost, a little off kilter compared to before, but willing to continue onwards nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I have not finished the main story of the game yet, the continuation of this fic is also left open ... But I may return to finish my own interpretation of V's ending!


End file.
